Two strange things happened when I sat down for a guided meditation for the first time in my life, recalls REENA SINGH
Many years ago, I did a course in pranic healing. That was the first time I was formally introduced to a guided meditation practice and two very strange things happened to me that day. As the instructor’s voice played out on a CD called ‘Meditation on Twin Hearts’, I heard him asking us to visualise a pure white light shining through our crown chakra and entering our body. I swear to you that as I sat there listening to the instructor’s mellifluous voice, in my mind’s eye, I actually found that my forehead area was suddenly flooded with light! Had someone suddenly switched on a bright light in the room? That was the first question that came to my mind. Apparently not, as I heard nothing and a while later when I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by the dimming light of dusk of a November winter in Delhi. No bright light was on.
For a brief moment that same day, I also actually felt so light-headed that I seemed to be floating. Is this the magic of meditation I have since asked myself many a time. And while I have tried to recreate that magic in my far more informal meditation sessions since then, I have not been able to recreate either the bright light being switched on nor have I ever experienced that floating sensation. I tell myself that perhaps it was the magic of that first experience that had brought them on.
Since then, I have also attempted to follow my healer’s guidelines on what to do when one meditates. One of the things my advanced pranic healing teacher said that pets should not enter the room you meditate in.
I was a bit jolted by that, because, I have kept pets and for many years, I would normally meditate while seated in my favourite sofa with my pet usually seated at my feet – I found his presence comforting and warm, and never did I ever feel that he was bringing any diseased energies into the room.
I raised this point with my pranic healer as it had begun to bother me and was affecting me no end at one point. But my meditation guide insisted that pets are not evolved beings, and that their soul is at a lower plane than ours. Hence the ban on pets.
Meditation is normally done anywhere in the house where one is most comfortable. Meditation teachers tell you to choose a room or a corner that is quiet and peaceful and cut off from the daily distracting noises coming from areas such as kitchens, main roads and playgrounds, or where people are talking on the phone or watching TV.
But I have found immense peace in sitting in parks on the grass or on a bench under a tree and quietly concentrating on my breathing. Neither did I ever find my pet a distraction. Pets usually roam around freely in most homes – and not allowing them into the room you meditate in is difficult. They are part of God’s creations, are they not? And all they want is to be around you. So let them be.
It’s the same in a park that can sometimes be noisy, especially on holidays as children are out with their cricket bats and badminton racquets. Their high-pitched voices blend in with the sound of birds chirping in the branches above. All part of God’s world, you say and soon these noises too slip in naturally as backdrops of your meditation routine.
Reena Singh has more than 38 years’ experience in senior editorial positions in The Times of India (TOI) and Genpact. She was Deputy Editor with TOI’s spiritual newspaper, The Speaking Tree, where she spent more than nine years.
Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels
Meditator and pet photo from cottonbro from Pexels
When we get fine tuned with the rhythm of our natural self, then all distractions settle by itself. Hence it is said, reaching in is the direct path to reach out and be in harmony with the entire universe. It is the chattering mind only that comes in the way and shies away too, when we reach the region of harmony which as such is the real nature of all of us. And hence Maharshi Patanjali says in Yoga Sutra: योगः चित्त वृत्ति निरोधः Yoga is nothing but controlling the tendency of mind to the point of pacifying that.
“All part of God’s world”, rightly said. Yes Reena ji, being in harmony as such is the only way of living in harmony with God’s world. And to that end, Meditation is the direct path.
Wondeeful and Beautiful first hand experience while sitting in guided meditation. ?⚜️?